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The life of a backup goalkeeper is one of waiting. Waiting for a chance. Most coaches play their number one goalkeepers in the vast majority of matches, restricting backups to lower-level cup matches and a lot of sitting on the bench. For Memo Ochoa, those days are over, at least temporarily.

Ochoa has spent the last two seasons as the backup keeper for Malaga. Since arriving in Spain following his heroics for Mexico in the 2014 World Cup, he has appeared for Malaga in La Liga one time. That was on Saturday after starting keeper Carlos Kameni came off injured after 35 minutes.

Kameni has a torn meniscus, which means that Malaga's net will be filled by Ochoa for at least the next few weeks. Every backup keeper wishes for an opportunity like this (although we're sure Ochoa didn't wish for Kameni to injure himself), but it's rare that one actually comes along.

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Even though he hasn't featured regularly for his club, we need to remind ourselves that Ochoa is a darn good shot-stopper when he's feeling it. If he can catch fire these next few games, he can turn his (club) career around.

Memo Ochoa Highlights

Maybe he just needed to change some little thing to shift his luck for the better.

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Sam Klomhaus klomhaus@the18.com | @SamKlomhausThe USMNT will improve as soon as American defenders stop kicking the ball as hard as they can whenever they get it and attempt to actually play the game of soccer (or football, or futbol. Whatever.)...more